James G. Pierakos, railroad union negotiator

James G. Pierakos, who represented short-line railroad workers in contract negotiations, died Friday at Hospice Buffalo, Cheektowaga, after a long illness. He was 80.

He graduated from South Park High School in Buffalo. He left the University of Buffalo in 1951 to enlist in the Marine Corps and serve in the Korean War.

While serving, he was burned over more than 50 percent of his body after a cooking accident. He was discharged in 1954 with the rank of sergeant.

Mr. Pierakos, of Hamburg, worked for the South Buffalo Railway as a brakeman.

In 1967, he was the youngest general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and from 1982 to 1987 was international vice president for the United Transportation Union, said his daughter, Pamela A. Orcutt.